We have long, multi-page ballot to fill out this election season, and that is because we have so many questions! I want to highlight one in particular: Question 5, which would set a cap on state revenue collection. Simply put, this is a terrible idea. Vote no on question 5.

We are following the lead of unions, teachers, progressive organizations, community groups, and many more in the Raise Up Mass Coalition, the state’s most powerful economic justice coalition, to say VOTE NO ON 5. See how we're going to win this below.

We just won our Fair Share

In the fall of 2022, I canvassed for the Fair Share Amendment alongside 350 Mass leaders like John M, Audrey B, Sara K, plus many other partners, allies, and friends. Over the course of the season, on warm afternoons, rainy mornings, and even a few festively spooky nights, I started dozens of conversations with MA residents and one thing was clear: we want more investment in public goods. 

Standing on porches or in driveways, people would tell stories about our schools, our roads, bus routes, and so much more. Everyone agreed that millionaires should pay their fair share. On election night, we watched the votes roll in, and after a blood-pressure-raising-ly close race, WE WON!

In November 2022, MA voters passed the Fair Share Amendment, Massachusetts' Millionaires tax, a progressive tax that only effects your annual income over one million dollars. 99% of us can rest easy knowing it will not take one more cent from us, and 100% of us will benefit. Since then, over $9 Billion has been raised, and all that money is earmarked for education and transportation spending. It has paid for things like free school lunches, free regional bus rides, free community college, and beyond.

Check out what the Fair Share Amendment has won: https://www.fairsharema.com/

Question 5 threatens all that

If Question 5 passes, setting a hard cap on state revenue, then the millionaires and billionaires who are funding this question will get rebates while the rest of us lose out on essential services. The fair share money can’t pay for all of our education and transportation needs, but that revenue is counted towards the cap (they're trying to hoist us with our own petards! Those bastards!). That means the budget for our schools and transit system will be capped, and money won't flow to pay for other public goods, like fire fighters, childcare programs, and healthcare. A cap on our states budget won't serve the people of this commonwealth. A cap on our budget hollows out the programs that make our state work.

Check out https://no5ma.com/ for more about what’s at stake.

The Raise Up Mass coalition has made this a focus because we know that there’s so much we need to protect. With the combined powers of our groups, we can win this!

What can you do?

 

What does Question 5 have to do with our climate?

Our ability to respond to climate change, today and into the future, depends on public resources and a state budget with a large emergency fund. We need public services now to address exisiting impacts of climate change, like extreme heat, flooding, hurricanes, and more. To respond, we'll need fire fighters and health care workers, not to mention investment in the roads and bridges to get them from place to place. Libraries and community centers, which depend on state funding, are essential resource hubs and emergency shelters during extreme weather events. Check out CREW, who supports institutions to become Resilience Hubs.

Right now, we are already paying for the cost of climate damages. Our towns and cities do not have the funds to manage extreme weather events or invest in resilience infrastructure. Some towns do have funds, and some have climate-focused staff, but most do not. These resources are not held equitably across the commonwealth, so we rely on state funding to fill in the gaps and address the crises as they come. A cap on our state revenue will cut this (literal) rainy day fund, and leave us without the ability to respond. That leaves the people most impacted by these events on the hook to pay for damages; that means that home owners, renters, and business owner are stuck paying for flooding, fallen trees, fire damage, ruined crops, etc. Millionaires and Billioniares may not see this as much of a problem, but the rest of us are individually unprepared to front these costs. And we know that things are only going to get worse. These issues also compell me to support the Make Polluters Pay campaign, which would create a "climate superfund" that penalizes the worst polluting fossil fuel companies and pays for resilience and adaptation infrastructure. If we don't make polluters pay, and we don't have the money in the state budget, then the cost of climate change falls squarely on you and me.

To address the climate crisis, MA voters must vote NO on 5.

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